Dfsee Version 12.X

DFSee 16.x overview, demo - Q&A

Jan van Wijk

DFSee functionality overview New stuff in versions up to 16.x Demos, Questions and Answers Who am I ? Jan van Wijk

 Software Engineer, C, Rexx, Assembly, PHP  Founded FSYS Software in 2001, developing and supporting DFSee from version 4 to the latest  First OS/2 experience in 1987, developing parts of OS/2 1.0 EE (Query Manager, later DB2)  Used to be a systems-integration architect at a large bank, 500 servers and 7500 workstations  Developing embedded software for machine control and appliances from 2007 onwards

Home page: https://www.dfsee.com/

 DFSee is an OS neutral utility similar to FDISK, LVM, PQ-Partition Magic, PQ-Drive-Image Norton-Ghost, Norton-Commander, Undelete and more ...

 Main areas of functionality:  FDISK/LVM/GPT create and maintain partitions  Imaging, disk-areas to/from (compressed) files  Cloning, disk-areas to/from other disk-areas  FS-specific: Check, Display, Undelete and Fix  Search missing partitions and recreate them  Browse directory/files, with copy, view, edit …  Access disk/partition images incl browse (.IMZ/.VDI)  Disk data analysis and update (binary edit, disasm)

 Backup/Restore commands Psave/Prestore and the corresponding items in the FDISK menu

 DFSDISK/DFSFAST procedures, preparing you for a partition recovery using the BSFIND command (Can be done 'post-disaster' as well :-)

Menu: 'Scripts -> Analyse disks for support'

 Recovery script can often be made (and tested!) based on the (7) disk analysis result files

 Use the CR/DELETE commands or menu items to manage the partition tables (MBR or GPT)

 Use the LVM command/menu to create and update the OS/2 specific LVM information and (IBM) Bootmanager configuration

 Use the Partition Table Editor (PTE) to directly manipulate table entries in MBR or GPT style

 Use the various SETxx and FIXxx commands to change partition properties and fix errors

 Imaging is a process where DFSee objects like disks or partitions are copied into a regular (often compressed) image-FILE

 You NEED regular file-level access in the OS you are running to read/write this imagefile!

 Can use 'smart' technology to skip unused areas  (Risky on bootable EXT4 filesystems!)

 Images can be restored to the same or to a different object, but keep the SAME size!

 Imaging is used for backup and restore, including data transfer between systems

 Cloning is a process where sectors from any DFSee object like disks and partitions are directly copied to another DFSee object

 Disk-to-disk clone, as backup or recovery clone includes all partitioning and LVM info

 Partition-to-partition clone, mainly for backup

 Special handling possible for bad sector areas

 Like imaging, can use 'smart' technology to skip any unused (freespace) areas in the object  (Risky on bootable EXT4 filesystems!)

 File recovery is the copying of file-data as a new file on another filesystem, retaining as much of the name, path and file properties as possible

 When targeting files that have been deleted it is usually called an 'undelete' operation

 For 'normal' files it is often used to recover files from damaged or inaccessible filesystems

 Integrated in the directory/file BROWSER UI dialog  Or use SEARCH, DISPLAY, RECOVER commands

 Implements display and navigation on directory and files in most filesystems on physical disks and DFSee .IMZ or VirtualBox .VDI imagefiles

 User interface resembles file managers with display, filtering, selection, marking and copying

 Actions on current/marked files, menu:  View contents, in ASCII, Disassembly or Hexedit view  Edit, modifying data in the HEX-editor where possible  View metadata like Fnode/Inode/MFT-rec/Dir-entry  View OS/2 Extended attributes (HPFS, FAT, JFS)  Edit filename on HPFS or JFS (same length name)  Copy/Recover file(s) to another drive

 Large window with HEX and ASCII sections  Variable number of lines and columns, selectable

 Integrated SEARCH facility, highlighted result

 Editing of files of any size, byte size granularity, including insert and delete at the EOF position

 X86 disassembler view modus for x86 binary code  ASCII view modus, for text-files or binaries with text

 Mouse-marking as byte-range or complete lines, with clipboard integration (copy and paste)

 Backwards compatible with existing .DFS scripts

 Much better error checking possible

 Direct access to much DFSee specific info, including disk sector contents from a script

 Powerful expressions, variables and functions  Can be used directly from the DFSee command line too: example, show current sector-number: say {i2hex($_this)}

 Conditional and looping control logic allows more intelligent and powerful scripts

 DFSee is available for 32-bit DOS, Linux, Windows-XP/7/8/10 and OS/2 (ArcaOS/eCS) and as a 64-bit macOS version.

 It is a non-graphical text based program, can run from a boot diskette, bootable CD or USB stick  Most functions can be run from a MENU interface with additional selection dialogs  Even more functionality through a command line  Output can go to the screen AND a log file  Command scripting capability (recovery, automation) with many C/Perl-like features

 1.xx 1994 HPFS viewing/fixing OS/2 16/32-bit  2.xx 1997 NTFS, FAT, FDISK, Imaging, setboot  3.xx 1999 Windowed UI, NT-version, DFSDISK  4.xx 2001 Cloning, Scripting, freespace-wipe  5.xx 2002 Menu-system, Dialogs, FS-resize  6.xx 2003 Linux version, Smart imaging  7.xx 2005 Installer, Mouse, new dialogs  8.xx 2006 JFS support, Sector edit, FAT format  9.xx 2007 Geo sniffing, more linux FS support  9.xx 2008 Enhanced (C/Perl) scripting support  10.x 2010 Bootable USB stick, better scripting  11.x 2012 Many small enhancements and fixes  12.x 2014 Basic/Expert menu, DUMPFS, ExFAT  13.x 2015 Full GPT en EXT2/3/4 support  14.x 2016 Browse FS incl DFSee .IMZ/VirtualBox .VDI  15.x 2018 FS, more Browse, mark/clipboard, DFSPUPPY  16.x 2019 ISO and APFS FS support; Browse/PUPPY update

 Contents based disk geometry (sniffing)  EXT2/3/4 and ReiserFS basic support  GRUB detailed reporting and analysis  Generate HTML menu-documentation  Enhanced native scripting capabilities  Disassembler (F2) for x86 processors in the binary sector editor, 16, 32 or 64-bit  Bootable USB stick/disk creation, for 1st generation, FreeDOS / PartedMagic stick  Display-only 'GPT' style partition support  JFS/HPFS boot driveletter display/change  Reset 'bad sectors' on NTFS, HPFS, FAT

 'Basic' versus 'Expert' user interface

 Search/Grep capability in HELP and Output text

 Support for the Enhanced FAT filesystem (ExFAT)

 Full support for Guid Partition Tables (GPT)

 Full support for Ext2, Ext3 and Ext4 filesystems

 Browse directory/file structures on most filesystems  Works on HPFS, JFS, FAT, NTFS, HFS and EXT/2/3/4

 Easy navigation trough the directory tree

 View (or Edit) file contents, metadata or extended attributes

 Copy/recover one or more files to another drive

 Access disks/filesystems in .IMZ or .VDI images  Browse a filesystem backup in a DFSee compressed image (*.IMZ) allowing viewing or copying of file(s) and navigation the directories

 Mount a complete disk-backup inside such an IMZ, in DFSee allowing access to the partitions and browsing the filesystems

 Mount a VirtualBox disk image (*.VDI) allowing partitioning, recovery and browsing of the filesystems inside, including copying one or more files to other drives

 Many enhancements to the user interface  Marking of text in various windows using the mouse (drag) with integration with the systems clipboard (copy and paste)  Update DFSee from the Help menu (requires WGET utility)

 BROWSE updates like recursive directory copy

 MacOS full HFS+ and limited APFS support  DFSee.app to start DFSee from the macOS 'Dock'

nd  DFSPUPPY, 2 generation bootable USB-stick  Boots into a fully functional PUPPY Linux desktop that includes many standard applications, and has network/Internet access as well

 Dedicated icons on the desktop to start DFSee, Hex-Edit and MC  Can use the USB-stick for image, script and log file storage (FAT32)  DFSee can be updated from the menu itself, saved on shutdown.  Stick can be created from DFSee itself (on platforms supporting USB)

 More enhancements to the user interface  File dialog new features, show hidden-files made optional, cleanup

 FILE BROWSER updates like hidden-files, fixes

 APFS filesystem support including file recovery

 ISO 9660 CDROM (and ISO imagefile) support

rd  DFSPUP64, bootable USB-stick, 3 generation

 Latest releases include direct NTFS and JFS access too (from Linux itself)

 Updated to use very recent PUPPY distribution and Linux kernel releases:  DFSPUP64, BionicPup 64-bit BIOS/UEFI capable, requires 64-bit CPU  DFSPUP32, BionicPup 32-bit BIOS ONLY, run on older 32-bit CPU's  DFSPUPPY, Older Slacko 32-bit BIOS ONLY, the original DFSPUPPY

Questions ?